At the beginning of this month, Queen Mary paid a visit of pleasure
to the Highlands of Perthshire, where the Earl of Athole was her
entertainer. It is understood that Glen Tilt was the scene of a grand
hunt, in the characteristic style of the country, at which the queen
was present, and of which an account has been preserved to us by a
scholarly personage who was in the royal train. ‘In the year 1563,’
says he (mistaking the year), ‘the Earl of Athole, a prince of the
blood-royal, had, with much trouble and vast expense, a hunting-match
for the entertainment of our most illustrious and most gracious queen.
Our people call this a royal hunting. I was then,’ says William
Barclay, ‘a young man, and was present on the occasion. Two thousand
Highlanders, of wild Scotch, as you call them here, were employed to
drive to the hunting-ground all the deer from the woods and hills
of Athole, Badenoch, Mar, Murray, and the counties about. As these
Highlanders use a light dress, and are very swift of foot, they went
up and down so nimbly that in less than two months’ time they brought
together 2000 red deer, besides roes and fallow-deer. The queen, the
great men, and others, were in a glen when all the deer were brought
before them. Believe me, the whole body of them moved forward in
something like battle order. This sight still strikes me, and ever
will, for they had a leader whom they followed close wherever he moved.
This leader was a very fine stag, with a very high head. The sight
delighted the queen very much; but she soon had occasion for fear,
upon the earl’s (who had been accustomed to such sights) addressing
her thus: “Do you observe that stag who is foremost of the herd? There
is danger from that stag; for if either fear or rage should force him
from the ridge of that hill, let every one look to himself, for none of
us will be out of the way of harm; for the rest will follow this one,
and having thrown us under foot, they will open a passage to this hill
behind us.” What happened a moment after confirmed this opinion; for
the queen ordered one of the best dogs to be let loose upon a wolf;[31]
this the dog pursues, the leading stag was frightened, he flies by the
same way he had come there, the rest rush after him, and break out
where the thickest body of the Highlanders was. They had nothing for
it but to throw themselves flat on the heath, and to allow the deer to
pass over them. It was told the queen that several of the Highlanders
had been wounded, and that two or three had been killed outright; and
the whole body had got off, had not the Highlanders, by their skill
in hunting, fallen upon a stratagem to cut off the rear from the main
body. It was of those that had been separated that the queen’s dogs,
and those of the nobility, made slaughter. There were killed that day
360 deer, with five wolves and some roes.’[32]
[Illustration: Queen Mary’s Harp.]
[Sidenote: 1564.]
The queen, in the course of her excursion, is believed to have taken
an interest in the native music of the Highlands, in which, as in
Ireland, the harp bore a distinguished part. It is even reported that
a kind of competition amongst the native harpers took place in her
presence, at which she adjudged the victory to Beatrix Gardyn, of
Banchory, Aberdeenshire. Certain it is, that the Robertsons of Lude
possessed a harp of antique form, which family tradition represented
as having come to them through a descendant of Beatrix Gardyn, who had
married a Robertson of Lude; and the same authority regarded this
harp with veneration, as having been the prize conferred on the fair
Beatrix by Queen Mary, for her superior excellence as a performer on
the instrument.[33] Queen Mary’s harp, as it is called, is now in the
possession of Mr Stewart of Dalguise.[34] It is a small instrument
compared with the modern harp, being fitted for twenty-eight strings,
the longest extending twenty-four inches, the shortest two and a
half. There had once been gems set in it, and also, it is supposed, a
portrait of the queen. It was strung anew and played upon in 1806.
* * * * *
This summer there was ‘guid cheap of victuals in all parts. The year
afore, the boll of meal gave five merk, and this summer it was 18s.
There ye may see the grace of God.’--_C. F._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OCT.]
‘... William Smibert, being callit before the kirk [session of the
Canongate] why he sufferit his bairn to be unbaptised, answers: “No,
I have my bairn baptised, and that in the queen’s grace’s chapel,”
because, as he allegit, the kirk refusit him; and being requirit wha
was witness unto the child, answers: “I will show no man at this time.”
For the whilk, James Wilkie, bailie, assistant with the kirk, commands
the said William to be halden in ward until he declare wha was his
witness, that the kirk may be assurit the bairn to be baptisit, and by
wham.’--_Kirk-session Rec. of Canongate._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1564-5.